The mail sorting staff of Itella Posti Jyväskylä left their workplaces today at 8 p.m. The protest continues the stoppages that took place yesterday afternoon and last night in the logistics center in Vantaa and the postal centers of Seinäjoki and Tampere, where the staff has returned to clear the mail backlog. The protests are against the new Postal Act, approved by the Parliament yesterday.
The protests cause mail delays in several locations and also have a minor impact for the whole of Finland. Itella will carry out exceptional arrangements to deliver all items to the recipients as quickly as possible regardless of the delays.
Business as usual:
- Early-morning paper delivery
- Day-time mail delivery (with delays in the walkout locations)
- Food deliveries to the elderly, schools and daycare centers
- Services in Posti shops and postal agency outlets
- Letterbox emptying
- Domestic and international freight
The impact of the protests on mail deliveries
- Several thousand first-class letters and approximately 1,000 parcels mailed from Jyväskylä to the rest of the country will not be delivered on Friday. They will be delivered to the recipients at the beginning of next week.
- Regarding parcels handled at the logistics center, almost all express parcels have been delivered today as usual, and the majority of regular parcels will be delivered one day late on Friday, and the rest at the beginning of next week.
- In the Ostrobothnian region (postal code areas 60-69), overnight letters and publications will be delivered on Friday or Monday with a delay of at least a day. Parcels and magazines, express letters, laboratory samples and blood deliveries have been delivered today in the usual schedule.
- In the Tampere, Pirkanmaa,Forssa, Pori and Rauma regions (postal code areas 26-39), for all overnight letters, magazines and some parcels intended for Thursday's delivery, there will be a delay of at least a day, and they will be delivered to the recipients on Friday or Monday. Express letters, insured items, laboratory samples, blood deliveries and some express parcels have been delivered in the usual schedule today.
- In addition, 2nd class/Economy class letters and magazines have been delivered in the usual schedule in the aforementioned regions.
- Due to the unexpected protests, there may also be delays for healthcare letter mail because it has not been possible to negotiate over exceptional arrangements for them.
Itella is sorry for any inconvenience the delays may cause to customers.
The walkouts deal with the Postal Act approved by the Parliament yesterday. The protests are very regrettable for Itella. Although they do not target Itella, the customers of Itella and Itella as a company are the ones suffering. In this financial situation of the company and the changing competitive situation, all measures which weaken customer service and confidence in Itella are harmful and may cause difficulties to keeping jobs.
We hope that there will be no more protests but our employees would use self-control and discretion in this matter.
In case of changes to the status of mail deliveries during the day, we will inform about them at our website at www.posti.fi and www.itella.fi.
Further information for the media: Itella MediaDesk, tel. 020 452 33 66 (international: +358 20 452 33 66)
